Windows Vista Team Blog : Internet Explorer 7

Expectations set for IE Team at MIX07

Nick White — Fri, 20 Apr 2007 22:30:00 GMT

In a recent post, Internet Explorer Program Manager Chris Wilson talks about his team's presence at the upcoming MIX07 event and sets expectations for what his team will cover there. [SPOILER ALERT] The long and short of it is that his team isn't yet prepared to discuss future plans. "We've gathered input from customers for the next version of IE through formal research like user studies and surveys, and also at conferences, comments on the IE blog, and direct emails from you; we will continue to listen at MIX07," Chris writes. Chris says the IE Team "will have more information to share about the next release in the future, but MIX07 is too early yet to discuss specifics."

Just as IE7 was a huge focus for MIX last year, the recent announcement of Silverlight will receive the lion's share of attention at this year's event (there are 16 sessions covering the topic to some degree). Some of the other sessions planned are:

Making Money With RSS with Walter VonKoch
Thinking In CSS: How To Build Great Looking Websites with Molly Holzschlag
How To Make AJAX Applications Scream On The Client with Cyra Richardson
IE7: Past, Present and Future with Chris Wilson

If you're planning to be at MIX07, the IE Team's sessions are a great way for you to understand what they were thinking with IE7 and the challenges they looked to resolve. Be sure to give them feedback and suggestions for their future work. And of course, keep an eye on the IE blog for updates and news.

Application Compatibility Toolkit 5.0 Released

Peg McNicol — Wed, 31 Jan 2007 00:41:00 GMT

Hi I'm Peg McNicol, the product manager for application compatibility in Windows Vista.

In the midst of all the excitement around the general availability of Windows Vista, it's almost strange to talk about IT Pro & developer tools, but if you are an IT Pro, or developer, this should be pretty exciting too. Today the final version of the Application Compatibility Toolkit 5.0 was released. If you are already familiar with ACT 5.0 make sure you download the new bits and the refreshed product guide here. If you want to learn more about the tools and resources around application compatibility for Windows Vista - please visit our TechNet site.

For people new to ACT, it is a single toolset that can help detect, diagnose, and mitigate compatibility issues found in Windows Vista. I think the single coolest feature of this tool is that you can deploy it in your current environment, Windows 2000 or Windows XP and get an inventory of your applications and see how they'll work with Windows Vista. Other highlights include the Standard User Analyzer (SUA) tool; there have been many changes made to improve overall security and reliability in Windows Vista, and this tool looks for possible issues resulting from those changes for users running as Standard Users, which is what every user in a business environment should be in this new paradigm we’ve delivered. There’s also the new Internet Explorer 7 Test Tool to test apps for use with the latest version of Internet Explorer, and the Setup Analysis Tool which detects any issues your setup packages might have with installing on Windows Vista. Finally, IT Pros can use the new and improved Compatibility Administrator to pull compatibility fixes from a database of existing fixes and apply them to apps one-by-one, or in predefined groups.

Overall, this toolkit is going to be a huge timesaver for the IT Pro community and a great resource for developers to analyze and test their apps. Even if you are just starting to think about planning or deploying Windows Vista, you should download ACT 5.0 and start taking an inventory of your current environment so can scope your workload and be ready to go when the time is right for your company.

Download ACT 5.0 now

IE7 for Windows XP Launches Today

Nick White — Wed, 18 Oct 2006 23:55:00 GMT

After lots of late hours and a few pre-release builds, the IE Team is happy (and a bit relieved) to say that the final version of Internet Explorer 7 for Windows XP has arrived. You can now download IE7 for Windows XP in English from either the IE site or the Windows Download Center. Look for IE7 in other Windows-supported languages over the coming weeks.

We expect millions of customers will upgrade to IE7 because it’s safer and easier. Some e-commerce and financial services companies like Paypal and VeriSign are endorsing IE7 because of its improved security for online transactions.

For those of you who haven’t heard yet, we’re going to start distributing IE7 in English as a high-priority update thru Automatic Updates. If you're an IT professional and have customers who want to manage their internal deployment of IE7, you should recommend they have blocking measures in place by 1 November. We think it’ll take several months to complete the distribution worldwide.

The IE Team still encourages Windows XP users to upgrade to Windows Vista when it becomes available to receive the additional benefits of IE7 in Windows Vista, such as parental controls and Protected Mode. Windows Vista is targeted to be available to volume license customers in November and all other customers in January 2007, although as we’ve said before, the exact delivery date will be driven by the quality of the final product.

And finally, if you run into any glitches with IE7, we’ll be supporting it with free, unlimited phone support for consumers throughout the product life cycle. So upgrade with confidence and let your friends and family know how secure and easy the web can be with IE7.

NewsGator to Utilize IE7 RSS Feed Store

Nick White — Thu, 21 Sep 2006 13:49:00 GMT

Our friends at the Microsoft RSS Team Blog have pointed out the announcement by NewsGator’s Nick Harris of the new NewsGator Desktop Sync Beta. Their Desktop Sync Beta will sync RSS feeds you've saved in the Windows RSS Feed Store (in both Windows Vista or IE7 for Windows XP) with your NewsGator Online account.

If you have a NewsGator Online account, download the beta and give it a shot. If you don’t have a NewsGator Online account, you can sign up at their site.

This is great example of an application designed to take advantage of new technology native to Windows Vista.